Blackburn with Darwen: its biggest suppliers, and what it is buying next.
Blackburn with Darwen is a unitary authority in the North West. We hold 359 of its award notices, 32 contracts due to end within 18 months, and 25 committee papers from the last 120 days that talk about buying. Everything here comes from public records: award notices the council itself published, and the papers it publishes before each committee meeting.
Data updated: 20 September 2026 (committee papers) | 18 September 2026 (award notices)
GovLeads reads Blackburn with Darwen's papers every weeknight. A value is published on 305 of those 359 award notices, so the total is a floor, not the council's spend.
Next committee meetings
The next 5 scheduled meetings at Blackburn with Darwen, taken from the council's own calendar. Papers usually appear five clear working days beforehand, and we read them the night they land.
| Date | Committee |
|---|---|
| 21 Sep 2026 | Police & Crime Panel for Lancashire |
| 21 Sep 2026 | Police & Crime Panel for Lancashire |
| 22 Sep 2026 | Audit & Governance Committee |
| 23 Sep 2026 | Standards Committee |
| 25 Sep 2026 | Executive Member Decisions |
Source: Blackburn with Darwen's published committee calendar.
Biggest suppliers
Ranked by total awarded value across every Blackburn with Darwen award notice we hold. Values on multi-supplier frameworks are shared across the suppliers named on them, so a place on a large framework does not inflate a single firm.
| Supplier | Awarded value | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| VWG Mechanical Ltd | £69.3m | 1 |
| Barnfield Construction | £28.0m | 2 |
| Connected Kerb | £10.0m | 2 |
| Conlon Construction Limited | £8.0m | 2 |
| Westhoughton Roofing & Pointing Services Ltd | £7.7m | 1 |
Largest awards of the last 12 months
The biggest awards Blackburn with Darwen has notified in the last year. Awards sharing a title and end date are collapsed into a single row, so a framework or dynamic purchasing system appears once rather than once per supplier.
| Award | Supplier | Value | Route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Darwen Market and Darwen Library and Theatre | Barnfield Construction Limited | £20.0m | Framework call-off |
| Concession Contract for Local Electrical Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Installation, Operation… | Connected Kerb | £10.0m | Open |
| St Johns Centre Conversion | Barnfield Construction | £8.0m | Framework call-off |
| The provision of Domestic Abuse Services | Blackburn and Darwen District without Abuse | £1.2m | Open |
| Carriageway Surfacing - Surface Dressing | Road Maintenance Services Limited | £610,689 | Open |
How the money is awarded
81% of Blackburn with Darwen's awarded value went through open competition and under 1% was awarded directly. Directly awarded work is the part of the market that never reaches a competitive notice, so it is the part you have to see coming upstream.
- Competed 81% (£195m)
- Framework/DPS 16% (£37.7m)
- Other/Unspecified 3% (£6.7m)
- Direct under 1% (£499,076)
Contracts expiring within 18 months
The 5 largest by value on record for Blackburn with Darwen, of those with an end date inside 18 months. A re-procurement decision normally reaches a committee months before the contract itself runs out, which is the point at which scope is still moveable, so the months-left column matters as much as the value.
| Ends | Months left | Contract | Supplier | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Nov 2027 | 14 | Darwen Market and Darwen Library and Theatre | Barnfield Construction Limited | £20.0m |
| 31 Oct 2027 | 13 | St Johns Centre Conversion | Barnfield Construction | £8.0m |
| 31 Oct 2027 | 13 | Provision of New Routes as part of the Bus Service Improvement Plan2 award notices, shown once | framework, 2 suppliers | £3.0m |
| 31 Dec 2027 | 15 | Bridge Maintenance Framework12 award notices, shown once | framework, 12 suppliers | £2.6m |
| 31 Dec 2027 | 15 | Blackburn Skills Council Design Team | Turner & Townsend Project Management Ltd | £1.9m |
27 more Blackburn with Darwen contracts expire by 20 March 2028. Start a free trial to see them.
Procurement radar
Committee papers Blackburn with Darwen published in the last four months whose title uses the language of buying: a tender, an award, an extension, a gateway report, a waiver, or a procurement strategy, policy or performance report. It is a title match, so the odd paper lands here on a word rather than a decision.
| Meeting | Paper | Committee |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Jul 2026 | Road Surface Dressing Framework – Procurement StrategyThe estimated value of the proposed Framework Agreement taken over its duration (circa £4m over 4 years) means the Council is required to undertake a tendering exercise for the creation of a framework. | Executive Member Decisions |
| 2 Sep 2026 | Contracts and Procurement PresentationFor example, the King Georges Hall Pantomime waiver was not required because the Hall was closed during the pantomime season, and the Roe Lee Roofing works were later procured through a competitive tender process. | Policy & Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee |
| 13 Aug 2026 | Supported Living Review and Procurement - EB ReportUndertake a tender exercise utilising the Lancashire County Council Approved Provider List (on which the Council are already named as a statutory commissioning body), complying with the Public Contract Regulations and the Council’s Contract and Procurement Procedure Rules. | Executive Board |
| 19 Jun 2026 | Contract Award – Fishmoor Drive Section 278 WorksOfficers from the Contracts and Procurement Team and the Highways Team are required to construct the appropriate tender and contract documents and effectively manage the scheme. | Officer Decisions |
| 14 Aug 2026 | Helping People to Stay Happy Healthy Well (Prevention) recommissioning - Chief Officer Decision…recommissioning intentions for the Happy Healthy Well programme and delegated authority to the Strategic Director of Adults and Health, in consultation with the relevant Executive Members, to enter into contracts with the successful tenderers following completion of the procurement process. | Officer Decisions |
| 12 Jun 2026 | Variations to the Schools Capital Programme and Contract AwardAll procurement and contract activity in connection with the Schools Capital programme must be carried out in accordance with the relevant parts of the Council’s constitution (in particular the Financial Procedural Rules and the Contract and Procurement Procedure Rules) and… | Executive Member Decisions |
| 13 Aug 2026 | Supported Living Review and Procurement EIA_toolkit…the oversight of the action plans will be undertaken by the Management Accountability Framework. e.g. via Service Management Team; Service Leadership Team; Programme Area Meetings If applicable, where will the EIA Action Plan be monitored? e.g. quarterly as part of… | Executive Board |
| 13 Aug 2026 | Supported Living Review and Procurement EIA-Checklist | Executive Board |
| 31 Jul 2026 | Award Of Contract for Conflict Resolution ServiceThe contract award has been progressed through a robust Invitation to Quote process in line with the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and relevant procurement requirements. | Executive Member Decisions |
| 29 May 2026 | Oral Health Improvement Service Tender Award v.3 | Officer Decisions |
| 9 Jul 2026 | EB Contract Variation for Drug and Alcohol ServiceThe management of the funding will be actioned within Blackburn with Darwen team resources including input from Legal, Finance, Commissioning and Procurement and Public Health. | Executive Board |
| 3 Jul 2026 | Award of Contracts for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health and Emotional Support ServicesDocumentation covering this arrangement must be in a form approved by Legal/Contract and Procurement officers. | Executive Member Decisions |
Showing the 12 strongest matches of 25. This is the raw feed, not the brief: a subscriber gets the handful that match their business, scored, with the so-what written out. Start a free trial.
Nearby councils
Suppliers rarely sell to one council alone. These are the authorities next door, and the ones covering the same ground at a different tier.
Councils it borders
Where Blackburn with Darwen spends most
The service areas taking the largest share of awarded value here. Each one has its own page explaining what we watch for.
Where this comes from
Awards, suppliers and expiry dates come from award notices published to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender by Blackburn with Darwen. The award data set was last refreshed on 18 September 2026, so notices published since then are not yet counted here. Values are as notified; where a notice names several suppliers, the value is shared across them.
Committee papers and meeting dates come from Blackburn with Darwen's own published papers, at https://blackburn.moderngov.co.uk. Every paper linked above is on the council's own site. Committee-paper figures were extracted on 20 September 2026.
What we leave out. A notice naming more than one buying authority is excluded, because it does not say how the value splits between them. So are notices from bodies that share this council's name but are separate organisations, such as the local college or NHS trust. Both would otherwise be counted here as Blackburn with Darwen's.
Nothing on this page is modelled, estimated or inferred. Every number is a count or a sum over those two public sources. Where a figure would be a guess, it is left out.